472 ILLINOIS STATE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



the philosopher for final settlement. I am not opposed 

 to this division of labor in the field of research, but I do 

 object to the dogmatism of the psychologist who sees in 

 the psychical field nothing beyond his self-imposed limi- 

 tations. 



Functional psychology has many points of advantage. 

 I was one of the first to use Prof. AngelPs psychology in 

 my class room. I think it an excellent method of study- 

 ing psychical processes. According to this theory, the 

 psychical stands for the readjustment of the organism 

 to sensory stimuli in accordance with retention traces 

 of previous experiences. The retention traces are the 

 product of the sensory stimuli, the motor responses and 

 the sensory consequences growing out of the motor re- 

 sponses. The association centers retain these exper- 

 iences and later, even without an external stimulus the 

 whole process may be set in operation. The cerebral 

 rehearsal of this previous experience becomes a check 

 and determines the response when the original stimulus 

 is again experienced. This accounts for the complex 

 mechanism of the mental life. The value of this pro- 

 cedure cannot be discounted. The adjustment of the 

 organism will always be a pressing problem, but it does 

 not exhaust the meaning and function of the psychical. 



Psychology has done well to abandon the sterile con- 

 ception of a soul substance, but it would be unpardon- 

 able recklessness to abandon the concept of psychical 

 energy, or a psychical life. Whatever the metaphysician 

 will say ultimately about life it will always be recognized 

 by its striving toward ends. Darwin made his great 

 contribution to the thought of the world when he pointed 

 out that life proceeds according to law and that these 

 laws are not mathematical or mechanical. Living organ- 

 isms do not merely adjust themselves to what is but are 

 selective of the parts of the environment to which adjust- 

 ment is made. Insects and animals with more definitely 

 organized instincts make their own environment, as is 

 seen clearly in the ant, the bee and the bird. In human 

 behavior we must reckon with impulses that make for 

 spiritual goods, such as literature, art and science, and 



